Free The Lincoln Lawyer: A Novel by Michael Connelly

marbles.
    She always called me Mickey Mantle, even though she was born after the great slugger had long retired and probably knew little
     about him or the game he played. It was just a name to her. I guess the alternative would have been to call me Mickey Mouse,
     and I probably wouldn’t have liked it much.
    “I’m going to try, Gloria,” I told her. “What happened to your face? How’d you get hurt?”
    She made a dismissive gesture with her hand.
    “There was a little disagreement with some of the girls in my dorm.”
    “About what?”
    “Just girl stuff.”
    “Are you getting high in there?”
    She looked indignant and then she tried putting a pouting look on her face.
    “No, I’m not.”
    I studied her. She seemed straight. Maybe she wasn’t getting high and that was not what the fight had been about.
    “I don’t want to stay in here, Mickey,” she said in her real voice.
    “I don’t blame you. I don’t like being in here myself and I get to leave.”
    I immediately regretted saying the last part and reminding her of her situation. She didn’t seem to notice.
    “You think maybe you could get me into one of those pretrial whatchamacallits where I can get myself right?”
    I thought it was interesting how addicts call both getting high and getting sober the same thing—
getting right
.
    “The problem is, Gloria, we got into a pretrial intervention program last time, remember? And it obviously didn’t work. So
     this time I don’t know. They only have so many spaces in those things and the judges and prosecutors don’t like sending people
     back when they didn’t take advantage of it in the first place.”
    “What do you mean?” she protested. “I took advantage. I went the whole damn time.”
    “That’s right. That was good. But then after it was over, you went right back to doing what you do and here we are again.
     They wouldn’t call that a success, Gloria. I have to be honest with you. I don’t think I can get you into a program this time.
     I think you have to be ready for them to be tougher this time.”
    Her eyes drooped.
    “I can’t do it,” she said in a small voice.
    “Look, they have programs in the jail. You’ll get straight and come out with another chance to start again clean.”
    She shook her head; she looked lost.
    “You’ve had a long run but it can’t go on,” I said. “If I were you I’d think about getting out of this place. L.A., I mean.
     Go somewhere and start again.”
    She looked up at me with anger in her eyes.
    “Start over and do what? Look at me. What am I going to do? Get married, have kids and plant flowers?”
    I didn’t have an answer and neither did she.
    “Let’s talk about that when the time comes. For now, let’s worry about your case. Tell me what happened.”
    “What always happens. I screened the guy and it all checked out. He looked legit. But he was a cop and that was that.”
    “You went to him?”
    She nodded.
    “The Mondrian. He had a suite—that’s another thing. The cops usually don’t have suites. They don’t have the budget.”
    “Didn’t I tell you how stupid it would be to take coke with you when you work? And if a guy even asks you to bring coke with
     you, then you know he’s a cop.”
    “I know all of that and he didn’t ask me to bring it. I forgot I had it, okay? I got it from a guy I went to see right before
     him. What was I supposed to do, leave it in the car for the Mondrian valets to take?”
    “What guy did you get it from?”
    “A guy at the Travelodge on Santa Monica. I did him earlier and he offered it to me, you know, instead of cash. Then after
     I left I checked my messages and I had the call from the guy at the Mondrian. So I called him back, set it up and went straight
     there. I forgot I had the stuff in my purse.”
    Nodding, I leaned forward. I was seeing a glimmer on this one, a possibility.
    “This guy in the Travelodge, who was he?”
    “I don’t know, just some guy who saw my ad